In consequence of past proliferation of war missiles of various types, the ongoing disarmament of such missiles, and notably the destruction of the rocket engines thereof, is rapidly developing into a serious problem. In solid fuel-type rocket engines the propellant is firmly attached to the inner wall of the engine's combustion chamber in a practically unserverable fashion, and can thus only be removed by combustion. According to the state of the art this is done in open air whereby the hazardous and environmentally unfriendly combustion gases are discharged into the atmosphere. Inherently, such open air combustion of solid fuel rocket engines can be done only remote from any habitation, which in itself is a hardship, and even so, there occurs a cumulative pollution of the atmosphere.
Also other types of rocket engines have to be destroyed from time to time, e.g. when faults are detected or when they have reached a prescribed expiry date.
The increasing quantity of rocket engines that have to be destroyed annually rapidly leads to a world-wide pollution problem. In consequence, legislation is developing by which open-air combustion of solid fuel rocket engines is forbidden and there is thus an urgent need for alternative solutions.
It is the object of the present invention to solve the problem by providing an installation for the controlled combustion of the solid fuel in a rocket engine under complete isolation from the atmosphere.